User:Trekphiler/Clément (French automobile manufacturer)

Clément is a historic French automobile maunfacturer.

In 1896, Adolphe Clément associated with Lord Charles Chetwynd-Talbot and Harry Lawson's British Automobile Commercial Syndicate Ltd. (BASC Ltd.), which owned Humber cycles. Together they bought the Gladiator Cycle Company and, with an investment of 22 million francs, merged it into a major bicycle manufacturing conglomerate of Clément, Gladiator & Humber (France) Ltd. Clément and Talbot remained as directors after the collapse of BACS Ltd. The same year, Humber dropped out.

Car production began in 1898. The cars were known as Cléments or Gladiators. Clément as a product of the of Clément-Gladiator-Humber (or Clediaber) company, founded in 1896 to manufacture bicycles.

Clément-Gladiator motorcars
By 1898 the new Clément-Gladiator company was building cars and marketing them as both Cléments and Gladiators. Gladiators were imported into England by the 'Motor Power Company' which was co-owned by S. F. Edge and Harvey du Cros of the English branch of Dunlop.

From 1901 Clément-Gladiator cars were built at the Levallois-Perret factory and by 1902 production was over 1,000 cars per annum, 800+ of which were sold in England.

After 1903 the Clément-Gladiator name continued to be used on the 'shaft-drive' cars made at the Pre-Saint-Gervais factory, whilst chain-driven vehicles were marketed as Gladiators. The Clément name was dropped in 1907 and in 1909 another French manufacturer, Vinot et Deguingand, took over Gladiator and transferred production to Puteaux. At this time the Pre-Saint-Gervais factory reverted to making bicycles.

Panhard et Levassor
In 1897 Clément invested 1 million francs (circa 3 million Euros at 2006 valuation) in Panhard & Levassor, part of their five million francs capitalisation. This established the main business and eventually lead to the creation of Clément Panhard marque.

Clément-Bayard
Clément Gladiator was divided in 1903, Charles Chetwynd-Talbot founding the English arm "Clément-Talbot Ltd", while Adolphe Clément formed Clément-Bayard on a former military site at Mézières (now Charleville-Mézières). He chose the name Bayard in commemoration of the Chevalier Pierre Terrail, seigneur de Bayard who saved the town of Mézières in 1521. A statue of the Chevalier stood in front of the Mézières factory, and the image was incorporated into the company logo. After the split both marques built very similar cars, but the specifications gradually diverged.

In 1922 the Clément-Bayard company was sold to André Citroën, in whom Adolphe also invested financially, and the factory at Levallois-Perret was the centre of 2CV manufacturing for the next 40 years.

Clément-Panhard
Clément was a director of Panhard-Levassor, and when the factory could not meet the production requirements for circa 500 units of the 1898 'voiture légère' ('dog cart') model, he undertook manufacture under licence at his factory in Levallois-Perret. It was designed by airship pioneer Commandant Arthur Krebs, of Panhard, and used a tubular chassis, centre-pivot steering, near-horizontal 3.5 hp rear-mounted engine with automatic inlet valve and hot-tube ignition, driving through a constant-mesh gear-train, and final drive by side chains and early models had no reverse gear.

Clément-Stirling & Stirling-Panhard
Some of the Clément-Panhards were exported to Great Britain where they were variously sold as 'Clément-Stirling' and 'Stirling-Panhard', by the Scottish coachbuilder 'Stirling'.

Clément-Talbot
After the division of Clément-Gladiator in 1903 Charles Chetwynd-Talbot headed the English arm "Clément-Talbot Ltd". Adolphe Clément was a major shareholder in the company, along with Talbot, A. Lucas, and E. Lamberjack. After the split both marques ( Clément-Bayard and Clément-Talbot) built very similar cars, but by 1907 the specifications diverged.

On 11 October 1902 Clément-Talbot was formally incorporated, and subsequently 5 acre of land was purchased for a new factory in Ladbroke Grove, North Kensington in west London, between the Great Western Railway line and the 'Edinburgh road' before it was renamed 'Barlby road'. The factory was a high status operation whose brick workshops used the latest saw-tooth roof line, glazed to maximise natural light. It was equipped with the most modern machine tools and the reception area was laid out like a miniature palace, marble Ionic columns, gilded frescoes and stained glass windows etched with the Shrewsbury coat of arms. The building is now known as Ladbroke Hall.

The company traded as Clément-Talbot and the factory was titled Clément-Talbot, but the cars were always known as Talbots.

Diatto-Clément
In 1905 Adolphe Clément created the 'Diatto-Clément Societa Anonima' in partnership with Diatto who had been coachbuilders in Turin since 1835. The cars, known as Torinos were built in Turin under licence from Clément. The first car was the 20-25HP which used a 3,770cc four cylinder engine. This was followed by a 10-12HP (1,884cc two-cylinder) and a 14-18HP (2,724cc four-cylinder). This series was a success and was followed by a six-cylinder model. In 1909 Clément left the business and the company was renamed 'Societa Fonderie Officine Frejus'.

Clément
Motorcars may also have been manufactured and sold under the Clément brand between 1907 (1908 ) and 1914. The company is recorded as Clément Motor company Ltd., Coventry, Warwickshire.


 * For cycle, motor-cycle, motor-car, aeroplane and airship manufacturing companies associated with French industrialist Adolphe Clément-Bayard - see Clement disambiguation.

Clément-Panhard was a type of auto-mobile manufactured from 1898. Adolphe Clément was a director of Panhard-Levassor, and when the factory could not meet the production requirements for circa 500 units of the 1898 'voiture légère' ('dog cart') model, he undertook manufacture under licence at his factory in Levallois-Perret. It was designed by airship pioneer Commandant Arthur Krebs, of Panhard, and used a tubular chassis, centre-pivot steering, near-horizontal 3.5 hp rear-mounted engine with automatic inlet valve and hot-tube ignition, driving through a constant-mesh gear-train, and final drive by side chains and early models had no reverse gear.

It is virtually identical to both the Stirling-Panhards and Clément-Stirlings that were imported into Great Britain by the Scottish coachbuilder 'Stirling'.